My U.S. Pat. No. RE 35,022, granted Aug. 22, 1995, and entitled Reduced Size Drive-Frame Assembly For A Reciprocating Slat Conveyor, discloses a reciprocating slat conveyor in which the conveyor slats are connected to transverse drive beams which are in turn connected to linear hydraulic motors. The linear hydraulic motors move the drive beams and the drive beams move the conveyor slats that are connected to them.
My U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,057, granted Sep. 27, 1994, and entitled Ball Block For Mounting Linear Motor, discloses a reciprocating slat conveyor in which the transverse drive beams are physically separated from the linear hydraulic motors. The linear hydraulic motors are connected to selected conveyor slats that are directly driven by the linear hydraulic motors. The driven conveyor slats are connected to additional conveyor slats by the transverse drive beams.
My U.S. Pat. No. 6,409,009, granted Jun. 25, 2002, and entitled Conveyor Slat Connector And Connection Method, and my U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,293, granted Jun. 10, 2003, and entitled Connector And Connection Method For Conveyor Slats, each discloses apparatus for connecting conveyor slats to transverse drive beams. In the connectors of these patents, bottom flanges on the conveyor slats are clamped between upper and lower clamp members which are in turn secured to the transverse drive beams.
My U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,807, granted Sep. 3, 1991, and entitled Method For Collecting And Compacting Garbage And Then Loading It Into A Road Vehicle, discloses a reciprocating slat conveyor composed of laterally spaced apart moving conveyor slats and laterally spaced apart fixed conveyor slats that are located between the movable conveyor slats.
The present invention provides an improvement on the conveyor that is disclosed by this patent. The improvement includes use of some technology disclosed in my above introduced U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,350,057; 6,409,009; 6,575,293 and Re 35,022, in addition to new technology. The contents of these four patents, and the contents of U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,870, are incorporated herein by this specific reference.